This script maps all known US mariculture farms

Raster

Standard raster used for this analysis

US Northeast

Source: Northeast Regional Ocean Council, 2018. Northeast ocean data: aquaculture. [Accessed January 17, 2020] https://www.northeastoceandata.org/data-download/

“This dataset should be considered a work in progress”

States:

  • NY
  • CT
  • ME
  • NH
  • MA
  • Federal waters

Species: - “Shellfish” “Multi-trophic or other” “Seaweed” “Finfish”

This data set is not “comprehensive” but provides good sources to look through for individual states (see below). These are polygons.

Maine:

  • https://www.maine.gov/dmr/aquaculture/leases/aquaculturemap.html
  • I think we will want to use both “limited purpose” and regular leases.
  • Limited purpose leases are for scientific or smaller/shorter term mariculture projects, that last up to 3 years.
  • I think this can be considered “comprehensive”.
  • Update to date as of September 2021.
  • Has species types specified.
  • Red polygons for the leases. Blue points for the limited purpose. Limited purpose has length and width measurements, so regardless we will have area for both if needed.

Alaska:

California:

New Hampshire:

Florida:

“ESI Human Use and Socio-Economc Resources Points” data

  • https://geodata.myfwc.com/datasets/myfwc::esi-human-use-and-socio-economic-resources-points-florida/about
  • 2015 data
  • 64 sites
  • Point data, no area
  • Not comprehensive (?), only represents points which are at risk from oil spills (which could be relevant to our project).

Offshore aquaculture in Florida

Other than the above, I can’t find much info for Florida. Google maps shows a couple shrimp farms.

Alabama:

Mississippi:

  • Can’t find much information for Mississippi.

Louisana:

  • Pretty much all freshwater from what I can tell.

Texas:

http://www.texasaquaculture.org/TxShrimpFms.html - They have 9 Texas locations listed here. One is definitely freshwater prawns. Unclear if they are land-based or not (I guess all shrimp farms are techincally land-based since they are ponds). Need to explore these more. - These are current as of 2018.

Connecticut:

Shellfish bed managed

However, worst case, we could use the data from the Northeast ocean council dataset:

“Connecticut – Data on Connecticut aquaculture was derived from two datasets provided by the State of Connecticut Department of Agriculture/Bureau of Aquaculture and the State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. One dataset contains the location of natural shellfish beds. Natural beds managed by the state, town or used for recreational harvesting were selected from this dataset, resulting in 1855 polygons. The number of beds in use at any given time is subject to change. The second dataset contains 46 polygons representing the approximate geographical location of permitted “Certificate for Aquaculture Operation” gear sites in the Connecticut coastal waters of Long Island Sound via the State of Connecticut Application for Joint Programmatic General Permit for Aquaculture Department of the Army General Permit. These datasets are up to date as of January 15, 2016. For more information on CT Aquaculture and Shellfish, see the CT Aquaculture Mapping Atlas."

ct_shellfish <- st_read(file.path("/home/shares/food-systems/Food_footprint/_raw_data/Aquaculture_locations/USA/Connecticut/Shellfish_Bed_Managed_shp/SHELLFISH_BED_MANAGED.shp"))
## Reading layer `SHELLFISH_BED_MANAGED' from data source 
##   `/home/shares/food-systems/Food_footprint/_raw_data/Aquaculture_locations/USA/Connecticut/Shellfish_Bed_Managed_shp/SHELLFISH_BED_MANAGED.shp' 
##   using driver `ESRI Shapefile'
## Simple feature collection with 1612 features and 7 fields (with 2 geometries empty)
## Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
## Dimension:     XY
## Bounding box:  xmin: 749686.2 ymin: 549766.7 xmax: 1252773 ymax: 731309.7
## Projected CRS: NAD83 / Connecticut (ftUS)
ct <- counties("Connecticut", cb = TRUE) 

  ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = ct_shellfish, col = "red") + 
    geom_sf(data = ct, fill = "gray") + 
  theme(axis.title.x=element_blank(), axis.text.x=element_blank(), axis.ticks.x=element_blank(),
        axis.title.y=element_blank(), axis.text.y=element_blank(), axis.ticks.y=element_blank()) + 
    labs(title = "Connecticut data", caption = "Not Comprehensive, General 'approved' areas")

Another map, this is probably what we need (seaweed and shellfish): https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f8799cefbb4c4751a209710d14b9ad46

Washington:

Approved growing areas map

“DNR leases deep water sites for finfish net pens and floating shellfish rafts and longlines. Salmon aquaculture operations have existed in Washington since the 1970s and are scattered throughout Puget Sound. Current net pen leases include salmon aquaculture, delayed-release salmon, and herring. The use of floating shellfish culture began in 1975 with mussel raft culture in Penn Cove. Current floating shellfish culture on rafts or longlines include oysters, mussels, and scallops.”

What we used for global: Our Sound, Our Salmon, 2017. [Accessed January 31, 2020] http://www.moldychum.com/violations-prompt-washington-state-cancel-atlantic-salmon-farm-lease/

All states:

North Carolina:

Shellfish

Has lease info for the entire state

Virginia:

Shellfish

  • https://mrc.virginia.gov/links.shtm
  • They have oyster lease and application data, which I think is the only type of aquaculture there. The map isn’t downloadable from what I can tell though, so I bet we will have to email to access.
  • They also have a phone app.

Maryland:

Shellfish

Delaware:

“Delaware is the only coastal state with no commercial shellfish aquaculture; a multimillion dollar business in our neighboring states up and down the East Coast.”

  • Don’t have to worry about Delaware.

Georgia:

Massachusetts:

https://www.mass.gov/service-details/aquaculture - “Massachusetts has 378 shellfish leases. Shellfish farms are a source of healthy protein and can contribute to healthy marine ecosystems by cleaning the water column, providing habitat for other sea life, and helping protect shorelines from storm surges and sea level rise.”

https://www.mass.gov/doc/2020-dmf-annual-report/download - 386 “private shellfish propogation” permits in 2020

- Also has production data per town or region.

Hawaii

https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/ai/aquaculture-and-livestock-support-services-branch/aquaculture-in-hawaii/

  • Not much info. There is definitely both offshore aquaculture and shrimp aquaculture in Hawaii.

New Jersey

https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/anr/sea/

  • “Currently, the program licenses more than 100 finfish, shellfish and aquatic plant producers in the state.”

https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/marine/shellfish_leasing_policy_atlantic.pdf

  • this has maps of all shellfish leases in 2020.. but they are all pdf.

New York

Suffolk County